The Circle Continues
by CaraB
Summary: Basically it just picks up where Full Circle left off, and will follow everyone's lives. Chapter 7 is up!
1. Welcome Back

The Circle Continues

Summary: Sequel to Full Circle - Basically it just picks up where Full Circle left off, and will follow everyone's lives. I would definitely suggest reading Full Circle if you haven't already, otherwise you may be lost on who some of the characters are. Incase you were wondering, this story is a Luke/Lorelai, Rory/Marty and that's really all the pairings so far (at least from the show).

Disclaimer: I own Grace, Jake, Elle, Ty, Alyssa, Stella, and a whole host of other people. I do not own Gilmore Girls or any of the characters, etc.

A/N1: Just so you know, this picks up a couple weeks after Full Circle.

Jake and Grace sat in their car, anxiously awaiting arriving at their destination. Jake glanced over at Grace and saw her bouncing in her chair, something she did when she was very excited or anxious. He reached over and grabbed her hand, "Grace honey, we'll be there soon."

She groaned, "I know, it just feels like it's taking forever! Why did I have to choose to live in Stars Hollow? It has the slowest speed limit ever!"

Jake laughed and continued driving, he was just as excited as Grace but he was already going quite a bit over the speed limit. They got to the house and before the car came to a complete stop Grace was out of the car and running to the front door.

She ran into the house and saw Lorelai, Luke, and Elle in the living room. They were sitting on the floor by Elle watching her play; Grace ran over and picked her up. She immediately smothered her in hugs and kisses, "Mommy missed you baby, did you miss me?" Grace asked Elle.

Elle giggled as Grace continued to talk to her, "I'll just take that as a yes."

Jake walked in the door and Grace handed Elle to him then turned back towards Luke and Lorelai. "So how was she?" She asked.

Lorelai rolled her eyes; "Like you don't already know, I think you called every 10 minutes the entire time you were gone." She said as she and Luke moved to sit on the couch.

"Well," Grace started, trying to explain, "It was a long trip, weeks and weeks."

"It was a week and a half," Luke corrected.

Grace gave Luke a look, "Just you wait, you'll know what I mean someday." She then looked at Lorelai, "So how was the doctor's appointment? I need all the details."

"There's not too much to share, basically they just officially confirmed it and we're guessing I'm about 6 weeks along."

Grace gave a little squeal, "This is so exciting!"

"I know!" Lorelai gave her own squeal, "So did you bring presents?"

Grace rolled her eyes, "Of course!" She gave Jake a pleading look; "Can you go get them please?"

Jake stood up and handed her Elle, "I'll be right back."

"Thanks hon!"

Elle quickly cuddled up to Grace, "So you did miss mommy, I thought you might have." She said to Elle, then gave her a kiss on her forehead.

"Oh she missed you alright, it was a fun first few nights. She didn't want to let her Papi and Noni get any rest." Lorelai said.

"Crying a lot?" Grace asked and Lorelai nodded, "Sorry, but at least we have presents to make up for it!" Grace said as Jake walked in.

"Yay presents!" Lorelai said.

After they had opened their presents Luke had made dinner for everyone, and Grace had put Elle down for a nap.

The whole meal Lorelai had been trying to figure out how to tell Grace something, but it wasn't until the very end that she worked up the nerve. She tried to sound happy, "So Grace, do you remember how you are now a part of our family?" Lorelai said as she motioned between her and Luke.

"Yes." Grace replied.

Lorelai continued in a fake cheery voice, "Well, for whatever reason I was telling my mother about that the other night."

"Oh no," Grace said interrupting her, this couldn't turn out well.

"Yes, I did. And being that it was my mother, she wants you guys to come with us to dinner on Friday night."

Grace groaned and Jake looked at her, "Maybe it won't be so bad." He tried to tell her, but Luke, Lorelai and Grace all gave him looks that said otherwise.

Grace tried to be optimistic, "Well, it's only one dinner right?"

"Right." Lorelai said, although she didn't sound too sure.

"Well we better get going, I'm so tired." Grace said.

"Oh yeah?" Lorelai asked, "Didn't get much sleep while you were gone?"

Grace ignored her comment and stood up, "Thanks for dinner Luke!"

…

Jake, Grace, and Elle returned home to their apartment. Grace was carrying a sleeping Elle, while Jake had an armful of bags and luggage and still had to make another trip to retrieve the rest. Grace took Elle into her bedroom and started putting her to bed; a few moments later Jake joined her.

Jake sat down on the rocking chair and pulled Grace and Elle down with him, together they sat and rocked Elle to sleep. Grace lay back against his shoulder and sighed, "I'm so glad we're home."

Jake kissed Grace on her forehead, "Me too babe."

"I'm not looking forward to tomorrow though."

"I know you're not, but it's something that we have to do," Jake tried to explain to Grace.

Grace looked down at their sleeping baby; "I just hate the thought of leaving her."

Jake held her tighter, "I know. I wish you could always stay home with her, but we both know that's just not possible right now. These past few months have been hard without both of us working, and I don't think we can live on just one salary for much longer."

"I hate money, really I do. People always seem to have too much or too little of it, it's never fair." Grace said with a pout.

Jake motioned for her to get up and they stood, "Come on, let's get you to bed, you are starting to get a little cranky." He knew she was thinking of James and Caroline, who she had started calling her biological parents, because as far as she was concerned Luke and Lorelai were her real parents. Jake didn't want Grace getting anymore upset than she was, so after laying Elle in her crib, he quickly took her to bed.

…

The next day

A very frustrated Jake and Grace walked into the diner and went to join Lorelai who was sitting at a table with Elle. Lorelai took one look at their faces and knew things hadn't gone well, "I take it you didn't find anything?"

"There is no good daycare center, home daycare nothing. Everything is dirty and smelly and has fifty million germ infested kids running around sticking their hands in power outlets and beating the crap out of each other." Grace said as she plopped down into the chair.

"Was it really that bad?" Lorelai asked Jake.

"It really was, we literally went to every place in Stars Hollow and found nothing."

"What about the lady who watches Davey and Martha? Didn't Sookie give you her name?"

"She did, and we went and she was the only wonderful one we saw, but she didn't have any openings. Our name is on a waiting list, but who knows how long it will be." Grace told Lorelai.

Lorelai tried to think of more options, "What about your family? Could one of them watch her?"

Grace rolled her eyes, "Yeah, let me just go drop my daughter off at the Bennett's, that'll turn out well."

"Hey grumpy, I didn't mean them. What about Alyssa?"

Grace shook her head, "That's almost 2 hours of commuting each day and Alyssa isn't even home most of the time. When she's not off with Matthew and the kids on some business trip she has her own things to do."

"I'm sure something will turn up, and until it does you can bring Elle to work with you." Lorelai offered.

Grace smiled, "Thanks Lorelai, I appreciate that."

Jake stood up, "We've got more to look at in some other cities so we are going to go up and get back to work."

"Ok, do you need me to watch Elle for a little bit longer?"

"That would be great! Just bring her up whenever you get sick of her." Grace said.

Lorelai lifted Elle out of her highchair, "That will never happen, not with this cute little baby."

Grace and Jake went upstairs while Lorelai continued talking to Grace. Once she was done talking, she walked over to the counter and held Elle before Luke.

Lorelai began speaking for Elle, "Excuse me Popi, we need some more food."

Luke gave Lorelai a look, "Lorelai you just ate how can you be hung-" He stopped himself, "You know what, never mind. More food coming up! No coffee for you though."

"Good because this kid is definitely yours and the smell of coffee makes me sick." Lorelai said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Luke rolled his eyes, "You'll live through another 8 months."

"No I won't! I'm going to die, Luke, die!" Lorelai said in her typical dramatic way.

Luke handed her a plate of food; "You'll live. Now go eat."

"Thank you Popi!" Lorelai said, speaking for Elle again.

…

Davis' Apartment

Grace sat nervously watching Jake as he was talking on the phone. They had just gotten a call from Lisa, the woman who runs the daycare that Davey and Martha go to. Grace went and sat right beside him, putting her face next to his to try and listen to the conversations, but all she could hear was Jake's responses.

"Uh huh, yeah. I understand, it's great that it worked out for them though. Well, thanks for the offer and we will see you Monday!" As Jake said this Grace squealed with joy.

Jake hung up the phone; "She's in! One of her families is moving and they have an immediate opening, she can start on Monday."

…

Monday morning

Lisa's house

Grace stood in the doorway tightly clinging to Elle, Jake stood beside her and put a hand on her back to lead her in the house, "Come on babe, we have to go in sometime."

Grace took a deep breath and slowly walked in the door and in to the room where Lisa and a few children were playing, and Jake kept a reassuring hand on her back.

Lisa stood and greeted them, "Hi Grace, Hi Jake. Good to see you guys again." She knelt down so she was face to face with Elle and gave her tummy a little tickle, "Hi Elle, how are you today?"

Elle giggled, and Lisa reached to take her from Grace. Grace reluctantly handed Elle to Lisa and started giving her all kinds of instructions. Lisa smiled and reassured Grace that everything would be fine, just to help calm her, she recited back all of the phone numbers that Grace left for her in case of an emergency.

Grace was trying to figure out how she would be able to leave when Sookie walked in, after greeting everyone she quickly set down Davey and Martha's stuff and sent the kids to play.

Sookie noticed Grace standing uncomfortable off to the side, watching all the kids playing and she went over to talk to her. "The first day is always the hardest. I remember the day I first had to drop Davey off at daycare, I cried for an hour and called every 5 minutes to check up on him. I was a mess all day and I burned everything I tried to cook." She placed a hand on Grace's arm, "I know how you're feeling and I promise that she'll be fine and you'll be back to get her before you know it."

Grace blinked away a few tears, "Thanks Sook. I guess we better get to work."

Sookie looped an arm through Grace's, "I guess you're right. Do you want a ride?"

Grace smiled for the first time that morning, "That would be great," She paused for a moment, "And we'll be back soon, right?"

Sookie smiled and nodded her head and together they headed off to work.

A/N2: Welcome back! I'm excited to be writing this again! I'm still looking for more ideas for it, so if you have any please send them my way! I know this chapter was a lot of Grace and Jake, but just like I promised it will follow the other characters more. Also, just a warning there is quite a bit of Grace again in chapter 2, but plenty of everyone else and some good Gilmore drama! Thanks for reading and please review!


	2. Friday Night Dinner

The group stood anxiously outside the front door, they had just rung the doorbell and they were waiting for someone to answer it. Rory stood at the head of the group, Luke and Lorelai were behind her and Jake, Grace, and Elle were trying to hide in the back of the group. Everyone stood there silently and not even Elle made a sound, no one had been excited about this evening and everyone was a little nervous about what Emily had planned. All to soon the door opened and Emily ushered them inside.

She greeted Lorelai, Luke, and Rory before turning to Jake, Grace, and Elle. "Hello Grace, it is so good to see you again." Emily then turned her attention to Elle, "And who is this?"

Grace held Elle out so that Emily could better see her, "This is my daughter Elle," Grace motioned to Jake, "And this is my husband Jake."

"Your husband? Your parents didn't mention you getting married."

"It was just kind of a small wedding." Lorelai said, knowing Grace didn't like to talk about it, "How about we go get some drinks?"

"Oh yes of course, just follow me!" Emily said as she led the way into the living room.

Grace and Lorelai fell to the back of the group, "My mother is being way too nice, something is up."

Right before the actually entered the living room Emily turned back towards Grace, "Grace, I have a special surprise for you."

As they entered the living room Grace's face turned white, sitting on the couch were James and Caroline Bennett.

Emily smiled and turned back to her, "Isn't this wonderful! Since you and Lorelai are such great friends I thought we could all have dinner together."

Grace took one glance at her parents and while shielding Elle in her arms she quickly ran out of the room. Lorelai motioned for Rory to follow Grace.

For a passing moment James and Caroline had looks of disgust written on their face, but they were quickly replaced with ones that seemed shocked at what had just happened.

"Emily what is going on?" Richard asked as he came over to join the group.

Lorelai looked at him and Emily and quietly said, "Grace and her parents don't talk with each other anymore. In fact they have nothing to do with each other anymore."

"That's ridiculous! Why wouldn't she talk to them."

"They just aren't nice people. They wouldn't come see her when Elle was born, and they refused to come to her wedding." Lorelai tried to explain.

Richard went to sit with James and Caroline while Lorelai and Emily continued their hushed conversation. Jake stayed back with them, knowing that if he was around Grace's parents for too long he may do something he would later regret.

Lorelai and Emily continued their conversation, "Lorelai you need to go get her, I'm sure she can handle being around them for one night."

"No mom, she can't. You need to either ask them to leave or we are leaving."

Emily started to protest, but Lorelai stopped her, "I'm going to find Grace and when we come back either they are gone, or we are."

Lorelai turned and started walking to the place she figured Grace and Rory would have ended up. She paused at the door and heard voices quietly talking, she knocked on the door and walked in.

Grace and Rory were sitting on Lorelai's old bed with Elle laying between them. Lorelai went and sat beside Rory, they all watched Elle wiggle around on the bed, "Has she mastered rolling over yet?" Lorelai asked.

"Not yet, she's gotten close though."

Lorelai picked up Elle, "She'll get it soon, too soon. Before you know it she's going to be crawling, then walking, then driving, then dating, and she'll constantly be asking you for money."

Grace gave a small laugh, "Well that's something to look forward to."

Lorelai's face suddenly became very serious, "Are you ok Grace? I know this evening was going to be at least a little bit stressful, but this sure wasn't what I had in mind."

"I'll be fine, it was just a little unexpected, but hey, I guess you weren't kidding when you said Friday night dinners were always interesting."

Lorelai leaned over and gave Grace a hug, "That's my girl. Now the pregnant woman needs to go eat, should we go see if the coast is clear?"

They went downstairs only to stop in the foyer when they realized her parents were standing there with Richard and Emily. Jake and Luke had been keeping an eye on James and Caroline, making sure they came nowhere near Grace. When they noticed her come back in the room they went and stood by her and Jake put a protective arm around her waist.

They stood there in a silent showdown until Grace turned towards Rory, "Would you mind taking Elle in the other room for me?"

Rory nodded and got Elle from Lorelai, who was still holding her, and went into the other room.

"Going off to hide again?" Caroline said under breath in a condescending tone.

Grace turned her gaze to Caroline, "No, I just don't think you deserve the privilege of getting to see your granddaughter."

"I would hardly call it a privilege." Caroline said and she was met with icy glares from the entire group.

"James, Caroline, I think it's time for you to leave now." Richard said in a calm but firm voice.

"Look at you Eleanor, always having everyone else fight your battles. It's pathetic."

Lorelai, Luke, and Jake were all about to start defending me, but I stopped them, "No mom, you are the one who is pathetic. Do you realize you are picking on a 5 month old baby and a 19 year old girl? Do you realize how stupid you are being just because not everything went exactly the way you wanted it? I've been nice, I haven't said anything and I've sat back quietly while you have treated me like crap, but I'm done with it and I'm done with you. I don't even consider you my parents anymore, as far as I'm concerned Luke and Lorelai are my parents now."

James and Caroline seemed startled Grace's outburst and quickly left when Richard once again told them it was time to leave. The group fell silent, and Jake once again wrapped his arm around Grace silently reassuring her. The maid came and announced that dinner was ready and they all silently went into the dining room.

They sat and ate their meal in almost complete silence, until a phone started ringing. Grace winced as she realized it was hers, glancing down at the caller ID she saw that it was Ty, "I'm sorry everyone, but I really need to take this." She said as she got up from the table.

Heading into the other room, she answered her phone, "Have I got a story to tell you."

"_Oh no, what happened Gracie?"  
_

"Well I'm at Friday night dinner with the Gilmore's"

"_Shoot! I forgot about that, sorry to call during it."_

"It's fine, trust me, I don't think the night could get any worse."

"_So what happened?"_

"Emily thought it would be a good idea to invite the Bennett's over so we could all enjoy a nice dinner together."

"_Uh oh."_

"Yeah, big uh oh. It pretty much ended up in a giant blowup and they left, but now no one is saying anything. Even Elle isn't making any noise."

"_I'm sorry Gracie, I can talk to them if you want, make sure they stay away."_

"I think it'll be ok, I'm pretty sure I've taken care of it for awhile."

"_Must have been some blowup. How about I take your mind off of it with some better news."_

"Sounds great, what's the news?"

"_Alyssa and I have a wedding present for you, we want to give it to you as soon as possible. When are you getting home tonight?"_

"Who knows. If dinner keeps going like this they'll probably be done before I get in there, but I think the original plan was 9 or 10ish."

"_Ok, we'll meet you at your apartment at 10:15. Don't be late!"_

"I won't, you aren't even going to give me a little hint?"

"_Nope, see you at 10:15."_

He hung up the phone, I was intrigued, at least the night had some redeeming qualities. I walked back into the dining room where Emily had obviously had enough of the silence, "This is absurd! Surely we can think of something to talk about."

No one said anything, "Well fine, we can just start talking about what just happened. I for one would like to be informed of what's going on in my own house."

Grace started to say something, but Lorelai stopped her, "I'm pregnant!" She blurted out.

All eyes turned to Lorelai and mouths dropped in shock. "Are you kidding Lorelai? Because that is not something to joke about." Emily said.

"No Mrs. Gilmore, she's not kidding. Lorelai and I are expecting a baby sometime in the middle of May." Luke told Emily.

"Well that's wonderful!" Richard said, "Congratulations!"

Richard and Emily both looked very excited, although Emily still had one question, "How long have you known?"

"Only about a week," Lorelai said, even though it had been more like two weeks, "We were just trying to think of a creative way to tell you. This wasn't quite what we were going for, but I guess it works."

The rest of dinner continued a lot more relaxed, and the conversation never was lacking. After dinner and desert they all headed home, Grace was especially excited and anxious to get home and see what their present was.

Luke had left his truck at the diner and wanted to make sure everything was closed down properly so he rode home with Jake and Grace. They got to the diner a little before 10:15 and saw Ty and Alyssa already sitting and waiting for them.

They walked up to them, Jake carrying Elle who had fallen asleep during dinner.

"You ready to go?" Ty asked them.

"Go?" Grace said, "Elle's asleep we can't really go anywhere."

"Well this gift really requires we go."

Luke was still standing with the group listening to this conversation, "I'll watch her, you guys go."

"Are you sure Luke?" Grace asked.

"Positive, after the night you had I'm pretty sure you deserve a break."

Jake and Grace thanked Luke then followed Ty and Alyssa to Ty's car. They drove around for a couple minutes then stopped in front of a small house that was about a block away from Luke and Lorelai's. Ty and Alyssa got out of the car, and Grace and Jake followed them.

Ty pointed to this house, "That is your present."

Grace and Jake stood there in shock, Ty laughed at their expression and then continued, "I know it seems like a lot and you'll probably try and fight us on it, but don't. You both deserve this and while I know your apartment is great you two need a house."

Grace just gave both Ty and Alyssa big hugs, "This is amazing. Wow, I-we have a house! Can we see inside?" She said, sounding like a small child.

Ty tossed her a set of keys, "Go on in!"

Then spent the next little bit exploring the house, it was perfect for them. Not too big, around the size of Lorelai's house but with three bedrooms that were all on the upper level, and a great back porch that overlooked the large backyard.

"When came we move in?"

"Whenever you want Gracie, the house is yours."

A/N: Sorry for the delay! I was gone to Colorado and didn't get this posted before I left, but I'm back now and I'm working on the next chapter. It should be up within the next couple of days! Thanks for reading and please review!


	3. Moving Day

Grace looked around the kitchen and groaned, "How can an empty house get so dirty?"

Rory looked up from the cabinet she was scrubbing, "I know, it's so gross."

"At least you guys get to do something." Lorelai said as she sat pouting in the corner.

Grace and Rory both rolled their eyes at Lorelai, she had been complaining the whole day about how she wasn't allowed to help with the moving.

"You're watching Elle, and that's a big help. Especially now that she wants to be held every second of the day." Grace pointed out, trying to make Lorelai feel better.

"Yeah but she's sleeping now. Can I please help? Pleeeaassee?" Lorelai begged.

"Luke told us that you weren't supposed to help move anything and you could help clean except all that is left is bleaching out all the cabinets and counters and Luke doesn't want you by the fumes, plus you start gagging every time you get close to it." Rory said.

"Isn't there anything else I can do?" Lorelai asked.

Grace sat and thought, trying to make up a job for her, "Rory and I are almost done cleaning out the cabinets, then we can all work on getting Elle's room set up. I think the guys just got the rest of her stuff up there."

"Fine," Lorelai said then she heard Elle crying in the other room and went to get her, "Yes! Something to do."

"She seems way too happy that my child is upset." Grace said to Rory as the finished cleaning out the cabinets.

While Rory and Grace finished in the kitchen; Jake, Luke, and Ty continued moving in boxes and furniture. They didn't have a lot, as both of their apartments had been furnished, but they had found a cheap couch and Luke and Lorelai gave them an old table and chairs.

Once everything had been brought in from the truck the girls went upstairs to get Elle's room ready, while the guys got Jake and Grace's bedroom set up.

After a few minutes Grace went downstairs to get drinks for everyone. As she was getting water bottles out of the fridge she heard a voice.

"Hello?" It called.

Grace walked out towards the front door to see an unfamiliar man standing in the doorway, after dropping a few of the bottles she looked up at him, "Hi, um, can I help you with something?"

The man seemed embarrassed, "Sorry, I thought I saw Luke come in here and I noticed that Lorelai's Jeep is here and I thought she might be here too." He rambled.

Grace was still flustered at this strange man standing in her house, "Uh yeah, they are just upstairs," She said before calling up the stairs, "Luke! Lorelai!"

They both hurried down the stairs, startled at the way Grace had yelled for them.

Lorelai was still holding Elle and she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the man Grace was looking at. "Chris."

Luke moved to put a protective arm around Lorelai's waist and she smiled at him then continued talking, "Chris what are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop by." He looked at Elle, then back up at Luke and Lorelai, "Is she yours?"

"No, this is Grace's daughter Elle."

"And who is Grace?" Christopher asked.

Grace took this moment to finally speak, "The girl whose house you randomly showed up in." As she said this she took Elle from Lorelai.

"Sorry about that, I saw Luke leaving Lorelai's house with the truck all loaded up and I thought maybe you guys were moving. I didn't realize that this wasn't their house."

Hearing the noises, Rory came downstairs, "What's going on down here?" She asked, as she turned the corner she saw Christopher, "Dad!" She said as she ran over and gave him a hug.

Grace had a look of realization on her face; he must be the famous Christopher. "I'm just gonna go see how Jake is doing." She said before going upstairs and taking Elle with her.

"Wow she's… friendly." Christopher said once Grace was upstairs.

"Chris you just scared the crap out of the poor girl, what did you expect? And what are you doing here anyway?"

"I just wanted to stop by and see you guys, it's been awhile. I thought maybe we could get dinner or something."

"It's a little last minute Chris, Luke and I have plans tonight."

"Well how about you Rory? You free to hang out with your dad?"

"Sure! I was planning on staying here all day to help but we're almost done so I'll be free for dinner."

"Great!" Christopher said, then he heard Jake and Grace coming downstairs, "I should probably get going, call me when you're done here."

Everyone quickly said their good-byes and Christopher was out the door before he had to face Grace again.

"Ok, so what was all that about?" Grace asked as she walked back into the room.

"I don't know, Chris hardly ever comes into town without some reason behind it." Lorelai said as she gave Rory a look.

Rory nodded and in response to her mother's look she added, "Meaning I'll be giving all the details once I know."

Lorelai smiled, "That's my girl!"

"I think we're pretty much done here if you guys want to get going. Grace and I can finish up all the extra little stuff." Jake told the group.

After everyone had said goodbye and left the house Jake and Grace, who was carrying Elle, took a long look around their house. The furniture was sparse, but the house was theirs. After a moment they got back to work unpacking.

…

After a long day of helping Jake and Grace move, Luke and Lorelai were finally back in their own house. They collapsed onto the couch; both of them were exhausted. Lorelai was torn between wanting to go to bed and wanting to stay up and wait for Rory's call, her thoughts were interrupted by Luke.

"Lorelai?

Lorelai turned her head to look up at Luke, "Yeah?"

"We have no plans for tonight."

"I know Luke, it's not like we have the energy to do something anyway."

"No, I meant we have no plans for tonight so why did you tell Christopher that we did?"

"Oh well, I just thought you'd rather just come home instead of going out. Plus I don't know, I just didn't want to. I'd rather spend the night hanging out here with you."

Luke wrapped his arms around her and they eventually drifted off to sleep and spent the rest of the night there.

…

Rory pulled into a Yale parking lot and as she exited the car she dialed her Mom's number, after quite a few rings she finally picked up.

"_Hello?" _Lorelai said in a tired voice.

"Were you sleeping? It's only like 8."

"_You try having something grow inside of you and see how much energy you have."_

"Ok sorry. Are you too tired to hear about the dinner?" Rory asked knowing that Lorelai would never refuse the details.

"_Never too tired. How did it go?"_

"It went really well, it was a lot of fun."

"_That's good hon, I'm glad you had fun. Was there any reason he showed up?" _Lorelai said with a yawn.

"Kind of, I think he was just lonely and wanted to see us. Oh and he invited me to spend Christmas break in Florida with him."

Lorelai sat straight up on the couch, _"What!"_

"Apparently he got some house that's right on the beach so he's taking GiGi there for Christmas and wants me to come with. Don't worry though, I told him I couldn't."

Lorelai paused then asked, _"Did you want to go?"_

"I don't know, maybe just a little bit. I'd rather have Christmas with you and Luke and everyone else though."

"_Well I certainly don't want to be without my kid on Christmas, but if you really want to go then you should." _

"I know, but we've already got our plans. I'll go with him some other time."

"_Sounds good hon. I'm falling asleep again so I think I'd better go."_

"Ok, goodnight Sleeping Beauty!"

"_Night kid."_

Rory hung up the phone satisfied that she had made the right choice, she wanted to spend the holidays with her family and although Christopher was technically family she wanted her actual family.

A/N: Sorry for the delay! I'm going away to college in 18 days so I have been busy getting ready for that. Future chapters won't be coming as quickly as they did in Full Circle, as I'm still getting ready for school and trying to spend as much time with friends and family as possible before I go, and once I go I'll have classes and homework, but I'm definitely not giving up on the story. I have some big plans for it and I'm excited about some things that will be happening (there will be lots more drama!). Thanks for reading and please, please review!


	4. Thanksgiving Day

Lorelai woke up and rolled over in bed, thinking it must be early as Luke was still in bed beside her. She cuddled up next to him and tried to fall back asleep. After a few minutes she realized that she wasn't going back to sleep, still not wanting to get out of bed she simply lay there and thought. She was feeling good this morning; her morning sickness hadn't been horrible, besides not being able to drink coffee, but now that she was nearing 12 weeks it seemed to be subsiding.

After a moment she decided to see how early it actually was, she was shocked when she saw that it was almost 10. Lorelai quickly rolled back over to Luke to wake him.

"Luke!" She said as she poked him in the side. "Luke, wake up!"

Luke mumbled something, but didn't wake up, causing Lorelai to keep poking him, "Come on Luke! It's late, almost 10! I can't even think of a time when you've slept past 7, let alone 10."

Luke finally started to be waking, but as he went to sit up he held his head and fell back into the pillow. "I don't feel so good."

Lorelai leaned over and placed a hand on his forehead, "Aw baby, you're burning up."

He tried to sit up again but Lorelai pushed him back down, "You need to get some rest," She told him.

"Can't, have to cook food. People are coming and they want to eat food." He mumbled.

"Luke, you aren't even making sense. Go back to sleep, we'll figure something out, we can always just have pizza for thanksgiving."

"We're not having pizza." Luke mumbled before falling back to sleep.

Lorelai got out of bed and got ready for the day. After getting some medicine for Luke and making him take it, she went downstairs to see what needed to be cooked.

A look around the kitchen and phone call to Sookie later, the best Lorelai could figure was that practically nothing had been done. The thought crossed her mind to call and cancel, but everyone had been looking forward to their first official "family" holiday.

There were no options; every restaurant in Stars Hollow was closed. Sookie and Jackson had gone out of town for Thanksgiving so she wasn't around to help. Luke was supposed to be cooking, but he could barely get out of bed. Lorelai quickly switched into take charge mode, grabbing her computer she started searching for Thanksgiving Day recipes. How hard could it be to make a Thanksgiving dinner? Sure she was notorious for not being able to cook, but she had never really tried. It couldn't be that hard… could it?

Once she found some sort of Thanksgiving dinner for dummies page, she got to work. It was telling her to start the turkey; she pulled it out of the fridge and stared at it. Did she really have to touch that? Gross. Having no other choice, she followed the instructions to the best of her abilities. Once she was done she stepped back and admired her work; it actually looked pretty good.

Lorelai placed the turkey in the oven and continued following the instructions for the rest of the meal. As the day continued there were a few minor burning issues, but overall things looked good. It actually all looked edible, for the most part at least.

After reassuring herself that the kitchen wasn't going to burn down while she was gone, she went upstairs to check on Luke. Lorelai found him still sleeping soundly in their bed, she went and lay next to him.

A short moment later Luke opened his eyes and looked at her, with a groan he announced, "You need to get away from me."

"Aw thanks honey, I love you too."

"I'm serious Lorelai, you're pregnant you can't get sick, it'll be bad for the baby."

She pulled herself even closer to him; "We'll be fine Luke. How are you feeling?"

"Better. How long did I actually sleep for?"

Lorelai glanced at the clock, "It's a little after 4."

Luke quickly sat up as much as possible, seeing as Lorelai was still laying on his chest, "What about the food? Everyone is coming over in an hour!"

"The food is taken care of… I think."

"Really?"

"Yes. Now if you think you'll be up to eating dinner with everyone you need to go get a shower and get ready. I'm going downstairs to finish up some stuff."

They both headed their separate ways. Lorelai was downstairs getting everything set out when their first guest arrived, "Mom!" The voice called.

"Kitchen!" Lorelai called back.

Rory and Marty entered the kitchen and Rory gave her mother a hug. "Hey mom! Everything looks great! Where's Luke? When are we eating? I'm starving."

"Wow, so full of questions. Luke's upstairs getting ready, and we should be eating as soon as he gets done and Grace and Jake get here."

After they talked for a few moments they heard the front door open again, "Hello?"

"Kitchen!" Lorelai and Rory said, freakishly in unison.

Grace walked into the kitchen with Jake, who was carrying Elle, following closely behind. "Wow, now that was just weird."

"Yeah it was. Ok, now that everyone is here, I'm going to go see what is keeping Luke then we can eat!"

Lorelai went upstairs while everyone else stayed in the kitchen. She came downstairs a couple minutes later with Luke who was still looking a little sick, but he said he was feeling much better. The group sat and began to eat; Lorelai kept it quiet that she was actually the one who made the meal.

Everyone got their food and quietly looked at it, some of it looked a little funny. The rolls were a little burnt and the mashed potatoes a little lumpy, but other than that it seemed ok, everyone just figured that since Luke was sick his cooking was just a little off. They started eating and Lorelai sat and anxiously watched their faces, no one seemed to be gagging so she took that to be a good sign.

Elle started yelling to show her displeasure at being the only one who wasn't eating and Lorelai reached over to pick her up so she could feed her.

They all continued eating their meals and carried on an enjoyable conversation; Rory and Marty were talking about the latest Yale news, Grace and Jake were telling about how Elle was now trying to pull herself up on things, and Luke stayed quiet the whole time just trying to stay awake.

Rory noticed that Lorelai wasn't eating and with worried expression she asked her mom, "Are you feeling ok?"

Lorelai smiled at her daughter's concern; "I'm fine hon, why do you ask?"

"You just haven't eaten anything yet, normally you would've finished the turkey by now."

"I was just feeding Elle and got distracted is all."

Grace turned towards Lorelai, "I could've fed her," Grace took Elle from Lorelai, "You need to eat too."

To be honest, Lorelai hadn't really gotten distracted, as silly as it sounds she was nervous to try her own cooking. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying it though, so she figured she better try it, plus Luke was giving her a worried look and if she didn't eat he would assume she was coming down with whatever he had.

Taking a bite Lorelai was pleased to find that it was actually ok, pretty good actually.

Seeing Lorelai starting to eat seemed to bring Luke out of his trance, "This food is really good Lorelai. Where did you say you got it from?"

Grace stopped eating, "Wait a minute, you didn't cook this Luke?"

Luke shook his head, "Lorelai told me she'd take care of it since I'm sick."

Lorelai figured this was as good as a moment as any, "Well actually, since there was nothing open and no one to cook the food I made it myself."

The looks on everyone's face were priceless, forks were stopped midair and everyone stopped chewing and stared at Lorelai in shock.

"You cooked?" Rory was the first to speak up.

"Yeah, actually it wasn't too hard, I just looked up the recipes on the internet and bam--"

"Emeril came over to help?" Grace quickly added.

Lorelai rolled her eyes, "No, I was just able to figure it out somehow."

Rory set back in her chair, "Wow, I feel like I don't even know my own mother. So for all these years of eating out and barely being able to cook Macaroni we could have been eating actual food for dinner?"

"I guess so, I just never tried." She turned to Luke, "Don't think I'm going to be cooking again though, it's very stressful with all the stirring and timers it felt like I was on some kind of wacky reality show."

They all laughed and spent the rest of the meal amazed at Lorelai's secret cooking abilities, and all quietly wishing that they wouldn't be coming down with food poisoning later.

After dinner they all went into the living room for a movie night. Halfway through the first movie Grace's phone started ringing. After looking at the caller ID Grace started to leave the room so she could answer it.

"Come on Grace, it's a rule no phone calls!" Lorelai called after her.

"Yeah but it's Alyssa and besides you're talking and that's breaking another rule so shush." She said as she stepped into the other room.

…

With the noise of the TV the sounds of Grace's conversation were muffled until they heard her yelling, wondering what her parents had done this time Jake went into the kitchen to find Grace sobbing at the table. He was immediately at her side and with his arms tightly holding her, he tried to find out what was wrong.

Grace didn't respond to his touch and made no attempt to answer his questions.

A/N: Ok, I wasn't going to post this one until Sunday, but since today was my last day of work and I move in exactly 2 weeks, I'm posting it as kind of a celebration. Enjoy! I had a lot of fun writing this one, the thought of Lorelai having to cook an entire thanksgiving dinner was very amusing! Thanks for reading and please review!


	5. The Phone Call

Answering the phone Grace cheerfully said, "Hey Alyssa, Happy Thanksgiving!"

"_Happy Thanksgiving Grace," _Alyssa said, though not with the same cheerfulness that Grace had greeted her with.

Grace immediately went on alert, "Alyssa what's wrong?"

"_Grace honey, um, Tyler was." _She trailed off.

Grace felt herself sinking into the nearest chair; "Ty was what Alyssa?"

"_He was in a car accident Grace, and it doesn't look good."_

Grace choked back a sob, "What? What happened?"

"_They aren't sure yet, another car just ran into him. The other driver was killed instantly. Tyler's in emergency surgery now and we don't know much of anything yet."_

"If you don't know anything then how do you know he isn't ok? Maybe he's just fine, you don't know!" Grace said, not realizing she was yelling.

"_We do know that much, that's all we know though. You need to get up here."_

Grace just hung up the phone, laid her head on the table and sobbed.

…

With the noise of the TV the sounds of Grace's conversation were muffled until they heard her yelling, wondering what her parents had done this time Jake went into the kitchen to find Grace sobbing at the table. He was immediately at her side and with his arms tightly holding her, he tried to find out what was wrong.

Grace didn't respond to his touch and made no attempt to answer his questions. Not wanting to leave Grace alone he called Lorelai and she took his place beside Grace.

Jake grabbed Grace's phone and went into Rory's room to call Alyssa back.

"_Grace?" _Alyssa answered her phone with worry in her voice.

"No Alyssa, its Jake. What happened?"

Alyssa explained the situation to Jake, her own sobs coming through the phone as she did. Jake assured Alyssa that they would be there soon and hung up the phone. His own tears came to his eyes as he tried to process the information.

He walked back into the kitchen to see that Lorelai had made some progress with Grace as she was now clinging tightly to Lorelai, tears still streaming down her face as she silently cried. Lorelai was stroking Grace's hair and trying to calm her, but as she listened to Jake as she quietly explained the situation she knew that there was very little she could do for Grace.

Lorelai moved so that Jake could take her place comforting Grace, she left the room and returned a minute later carrying their things.

"You ok to drive?" She asked Jake and he nodded his head in response, "Ok, here is your stuff, go to New York. Luke and I will watch Elle for as long as you need. Don't worry about hurrying back."

After Lorelai gave Grace a final hug Jake and Grace left the house. The rest of the group sat somberly in the living room thinking about the evening's turn in events. Worrying for Ty and wondering how Grace would make it through if he didn't.

…

A few long, long hours later Grace and Jake finally arrived at the hospital in New York. During the ride Grace had stopped crying, but she still wouldn't say anything and had just stared out the window the whole time. For awhile Jake had wondered if she had managed to fall asleep but he realized that she hadn't when she jumped out of the car before it was parked.

The both ran up to the waiting room that Alyssa had told them that she would be in. They both saw Alyssa and Grace's family sitting in the chairs and ran over to them.

"What's going on? How's he doing?" Grace frantically asked.

"He's still in surgery, we haven't heard anything new yet." Alyssa answered.

"Still in surgery! He's been in surgery for hours! What could they possibly be doing in there?"

"Grace why don't we go sit down and wait? I'm sure someone will be out soon." Jake said as he tried to lead her to a seat.

Grace pulled away, "I don't want to sit! I want to know what's going on!"

Grace began to pace and Jake sat down in the chair, not knowing what else he could do to calm her. Alyssa got up and went over to the window where Grace had stopped. She placed a hand on Grace's arm and asked, "You doing ok?"

Grace brought both hands up to her face and wiped away a few tears, "How can I be ok? Our brother is lying in a hospital bed somewhere in this hospital and for all we know he could be dead. But that's the thing, we don't know, no one will say anything and I don't want to just sit and wait."

Jake walked over to Grace and Alyssa, "The nurse just told us the doctor would be out soon to let us know what's happening."

Alyssa brushed some hair out of Grace's eyes, "See? Someone is coming right now, let's go wait for them."

Knowing that the doctor would be out soon, Grace allowed Jake and Alyssa to guide her back to the chairs where her family was sitting.

For the first time since she got there Grace saw her parents sitting there, they looked upset and nervous, Grace felt sorry for them she knew how upset she would be if something had happened to Grace. She was only upset for a moment though, because as soon as she and Jake sat down they both gave her a dirty look.

A long moment later the doctor finally appeared in the waiting room, he came over the family and shook the hands of the elder Bennett's. "Hi I'm Dr. Collins, I've been working on your son."

"How is he?" James Bennett calmly asked.

Dr. Collins motioned for them to take a seat, he sat beside them and starting explaining, "Considering the circumstances he is doing pretty good. He ruptured his spleen, broke an arm, leg and multiple ribs. All of those were simple enough to take care, what we are worried about now is some swelling on his brain and until he wakes up we can't tell what kind of damage that has caused."

As Dr. Collins spoke Grace felt herself growing more and more upset, she couldn't believe he was talking about her brother having potential brain damage. Ty was always her protector, her teacher; he was always the one caring for her. Now he was the one hurt and she didn't know how she was supposed to care for him.

The doctor continued talking but Grace couldn't handle it anymore, she got up and started walking down a random hallway. She spotted a payphone and decided that it was time to make a call.

A very sleepy Lorelai answered the phone, _"Hello?"_

"Hi Lorelai, its Grace."

Lorelai immediately sounded more alert, _"Grace? What's going on? How's Ty doing?"_

"Not the greatest. The doctor says he's doing pretty well, but he has multiple broken bones and…" She paused, "There's swelling on his brain and he could have brain damage."

Lorelai tried to say something but Grace quickly changed the subject, "Is Elle doing ok?"

"_She's been great. A little bit after everyone left Luke was holding her and they both fell asleep, I got a picture of it for you."_

Grace gave a small smile as she imagined the picture, "Thanks Lorelai, call me if you need anything."

"_Hey, that's supposed to be my line. Seriously though, anything you need just let us know. Even if you just need to call and talk or cry or have me sing songs to you."_

"I will. Bye Lorelai."

After hanging up the phone Grace turned just in time to see Dr. Collins and a team of nurses rushing into one of the rooms. Frozen in fear she watched as Jake came running towards her with a worried look on his face. Grace didn't even wait to hear what he had to say she just collapsed in his arms and let him hold her as she cried.

A/N: I meant to have this up Thursday! Sorry! I'm going to try and have the next chapter up by Wednesday, but if I don't it will probably be Saturday at the earliest because I'll be moving into my dorm and have orientation and all that. I know that this chapter probably seems like a lot of Grace and Jake again, but I promise that it will be a lot of everyone else too. I just need a little time to get everything started with this storyline, and I can tell you that at least 1/3 of the next chapter is just Luke and Lorelai. Big crazy things coming, and that's all I'll say for now. Thanks for reading and please, please review and let me know what you think!


	6. Waiting

Luke and Lorelai's House

Lorelai hung up the phone and snuggled back up next to Luke, needing to know that he was close and alright.

Luke noticed this and wrapped his arms around her, "How's Grace?" He asked her.

"She says she's fine, but I know she's lying." In a softer tone she added, "Ty's not doing so well."

Luke sighed, he knew how much this must be hurting Grace, he made a mental note to himself to try and call her tomorrow.

They said nothing else, both were drifting back to sleep right as they heard Elle start crying from where she had been sleeping in Rory's room. They both started to get out of bed to go get her.

"Luke, stay here you're still sick and you need to get your rest."

"You need your rest too, you're resting for two remember."

"Hey, that excuse only works for eating."

"That's not what you said last night when you fell asleep during the movie."

They stopped their playful banter as they heard Elle cry out again. Giving Luke a kiss Lorelai pushed him back toward the bed, "You rest, I'll get her this time."

Knowing that there was no point in arguing with her, Luke agreed. He tried to stay awake until she came back up, but even with all the sleeping he had done that day he still was not able too. Luke woke up about an hour later and noticed that Lorelai still had not returned.

Getting out of bed, he decided he would go try and find her. As he entered the kitchen he could hear Lorelai quietly talking to Elle. He walked into Rory's room to see Lorelai sitting on the bed with Elle sitting on her lap facing her. Lorelai was playing some sort of game with Elle, and Luke was sure she had probably just made it up.

Lorelai glanced up to see Luke standing in the doorway, flashing him a smile she patted the bed to invite him to come sit next to her. He came over and together they sat squished on the small bed, as soon as Luke sat down Elle reached out her arms for him and he lifted her towards him and she automatically cuddled up in his arms.

As Lorelai laid her head on Luke's shoulder and quietly tickled Elle's feet, they both became lost in their thoughts of the day when they could enjoy moments like this all the time.

Lorelai motioned to where Elle was finally starting to fall asleep in Luke's arms, "Finally, I've been down here the whole time trying to get her to do that, but she hasn't been interested in sleeping."

"Well you should have let me come down to start with," Luke joked with Lorelai.

"Ha. Funny. Seriously though, I think she misses Grace and Jake. It took me a little while to get her calmed down. I was thinking that it might be good for us to go up to New York tomorrow, they might be up there for awhile and I'm sure it would be good for them to see Elle."

Luke thought about it for a moment, "I think I can have the diner covered for the day. Can you get away from the inn for that long?"

Lorelai smiled, "I already took care of it." She glanced down at Elle then lowered her voice to a whisper, "She's asleep."

Together they got the baby back into her crib then went back upstairs to their own bed, knowing that tomorrow was sure to be a long day.

…

Hospital

After the phone call

Grace was still sobbing and clinging tightly to Jake. He was confused, but figured it was just all the emotion of the day catching up with her. As Grace tried to compose herself Jake continued to rub her back and held her tight, shortly after Grace started to pull back.

"We need to go see what's happening with Ty." She said with tear stained eyes and a few sniffles.

"That's what I was just coming to tell you, Dr. Collins just said we could go see him for a few minutes."

Grace stepped back and stared at him, "But he just ran by with other doctors and nurses, I thought something had happened."

"I just came from outside of Ty's room and his condition is still the same, they must have been going somewhere else."

Grace felt a rush of relief, she decided that for now no change was better than bad change. They walked hand-in-hand to Ty's room and saw Alyssa and Matthew exiting.

"You guys can go in now, but they are only allowing two people to be in there at a time and only for 5 minutes." Alyssa told them.

Grace hurried towards the door, but Alyssa grabbed her arm to stop her, "Grace wait." She paused to try and find the right words, "He doesn't look good Grace, he's bruised and hooked up to a lot of different machines. Don't be shocked when you see him, just try and remember that the doctor said he was doing pretty well."

Grace impatiently nodded her head and Alyssa let go of her arm. Grace went towards the door a little bit slower, trying to prepare herself for what was coming. As soon as she got inside the door and saw Ty, she knew nothing could've prepared her for what she saw.

Ty was laying limp on the bed, with more machines hooked up to him then Grace had ever seen. It didn't even look like Ty, his face was swollen and bruised and he was covered in scrapes and bandages.

Grace walked up to the bed and carefully laid a hand on top of Ty's hand. Even though she knew it was unlikely she was hoping he would somehow respond to her, when he didn't she resigned herself to sitting by his bed and quietly talking to him.

Jake kept his distance wanting to give Grace her space. A few short minutes later a nurse came in and told them their time was up. Grace whispered something to Ty then walked with Jake back out the door. They walked back to the lobby where they found Alyssa and Matthew sitting, their parents were nowhere to be found.

Alyssa stood to greet them, "We were just about to try and find a hotel to stay at tonight, do you want to come with?"

At the exact same time Jake and Grace gave conflicting answers. Jake, who wanted to find hotel, turned to Grace, "Babe you need to get some rest. They'll call if anything changes."

"I know, but I'd just feel better if I was here. You can go if you want."

"I'm not leaving you here alone Grace."

Grace rolled her eyes, "I'm a big girl Jake, I'll be fine."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I know, how about we go to Ty's instead. I'm sure there are things there that need to be taken care of and I'd feel better if I could be doing something helpful."

Jake agreed and the two of them headed back to Ty's apartment. The ride there was quiet, and anytime Jake tried to start a conversation Grace would respond in as few words as possible. They got to the apartment and Grace got the spare key from its hidden location and let them into the apartment.

Grace started watering plants, washing dishes, doing whatever she could to keep herself busy. Jake wandered around the apartment and wasn't surprised to see that most of the pictures Ty had scattered around were of Grace or Elle.

After Grace had been cleaning for hours and it was getting into the early hours of morning, Jake finally convinced her to go to bed.

…

Early the next morning Jake woke up to find that Grace wasn't in the bed with him. He walked out of the guest room to find that she was ready to go and back at work.

"Oh hey, you're up. We can get going now." She said as she threw the rag she was using to wipe the counter in the sink.

"Grace what are you doing? You barely got any sleep."

"I was up so I figured I'd just get ready and we could go, if we are just waiting around we might as well be waiting at the hospital."

Grace said it with such defeat in her voice that Jake agreed to go as soon as they went out and got some breakfast.

After a quick breakfast they arrived back at the hospital to find that they were the first ones back. Grace was about to erupt into an angry rant when Alyssa arrived explaining that she had to drive Matthew to the airport so he could get back to the kids.

They sat in the waiting room for hours with no news, James and Caroline Bennett arrived a few hours after everyone else, but they sat on the opposite side of the waiting room and made no eye contact.

Finally Grace couldn't take it anymore and she took off to wander the hospital for awhile. Half an hour later Jake heard footsteps and looked up to see if it was Grace returning, he was pleasantly surprised to see that it was Lorelai, Luke, and Elle.

Jake immediately went and grabbed his baby and held her close. After smothering her in hugs and kisses he turned to Luke and Lorelai, "What are you doing here?"

"We wanted to come see how Ty was doing, and we thought you might want to see Elle," Luke told him.

Lorelai glanced around the room, "Where's Grace?" She asked.

Jake sighed, "I don't know, she wandered off a little while ago, she can't handle all of the waiting."

It was clear from Jake's expression that he was stressed about what was happening with Grace, seeing this Lorelai offered, "I'll go find her."

…

Grace had left the waiting room and just started walking, she had paced most of the hospital and decided to go back and see if anything was new. She was walking back to the waiting room and not really paying any attention when she ran into somebody.

After recovering from the shock of it Grace looked up from the floor and was surprised at who she saw, "Lorelai?"

Realizing that it was Lorelai she had just run in to Grace suddenly became worried, "Are you ok? Did I hurt you?"

"I'm fine Grace, you barely bumped me."

"Oh ok, that's good." Grace said as she looked back down at the floor.

Lorelai pulled Grace to the nearest bench and sat her down, after making Grace look her in the eye she said, "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine." After Lorelai gave her a look she continued, "Really Lorelai, I am."

"Are you sure? You were a little distracted earlier. Is there anything you want to talk about?"

Grace paused for a moment, "Why are you here?" She asked then quickly added, "I didn't mean that to be rude, I'm just curious."

Lorelai was a little thrown off by the sudden topic change, "We came to see how everyone was doing, so how are you doing for real?"

"Who's we?"

Lorelai sighed in frustration at how Grace refused to answer her, "Me, Luke, and Elle."

"Elle's here? Where?"

"In the waiting room, but Grace first could we-"

Grace didn't give her time to finish before she was up and on her way back to the waiting room. Lorelai slowly followed behind, she was totally confused at how Grace was acting. She had never pushed Lorelai away like that, anytime something had been bothering her, she told Lorelai about it.

As Lorelai entered the waiting room she saw Grace hugging Elle and hoped that it would help.

…

The day was almost over and still nothing new. Luke and Lorelai had just left and they had taken Elle with them. The waiting room seemed empty and a lot duller without the Elle's cheerful spirit, even James and Caroline seemed to miss the distraction.

Throughout the day whenever anyone would walk into the room, the whole group would look to see who it was in hopes of someone carrying news. They had almost given up hope when the nurse who had been working with Ty hurried into the room.

"Dr. Collins wanted me to inform you that Ty is waking up, you should be able to see him soon."

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for the massively long delay between chapters! School has kept me a lot busier than I thought it would. I really can't say when the next chapter will be up, but I will try to work on it and hopefully it won't be too long! I know though that I have a bunch of big papers coming up and I won't want to write a lot right after I do those. I also have so much reading to do! In one class alone, in the 25 days I've actually been in school, I've had to read almost 300 page (in just one of the books for that class), so like I said I've been keeping pretty busy, and when I get free time I don't feel like reading or writing. Little by little I'm working on the next chapter, and I'm not giving up on this story! So please be patient with me as I'm adjusting to all these changes! Thanks for everything!


	7. Relief?

_Throughout the day whenever anyone would walk into the room, the whole group would look to see who it was in hopes of someone carrying news. They had almost given up hope when the nurse who had been working with Ty hurried into the room._

"_Dr. Collins wanted me to inform you that Ty is waking up, you should be able to see him soon." _

Relief spread throughout the group as they heard the news, not long after they were allowed to see Ty two at a time. The oldest Bennett's demanded that they see him first, and even though they were all anxious to see Ty, no one was going to fight them on it.

There was a tense moment as James and Caroline Bennett exited Ty's room, everyone had been civil to each other so far, but they were all wondering how long that would last for.

Once the Bennett's were out of the hallway Jake started pushing Grace and Alyssa to the door, "You guys go on in. I'll go last."

They both nodded and headed towards the door, but when they got there Grace froze.

After a moment she slowly turned to Jake, "Why don't you and Alyssa go first? I'll go last."

"No, you go ahead. He's your brother, you should get to go first."

"I know, but I'd rather do it alone. So really, you guys go in."

Jake reluctantly agreed. Jake and Alyssa went into Ty's room and about 5 minutes later came back out.

Jake walked over to Grace and gave her a hug, "Are you sure you want to go alone? I can come with if you want."

"I'm sure," Grace said before starting to walk away. She walked in the door and tried to calm herself, she had seen him once already so she wasn't sure why she was so nervous.

Grace was shocked when she finally looked up at Ty and saw that he was laying propped up on the bed and was fully awake. She couldn't contain herself any longer and she ran to give him a hug.

Ty's injuries prohibited him from hugging her back, but as soon as she pulled back he slowly reached for her hand. "Hey Gracie."

As hard as she tried, Grace couldn't hold back the tears. Ty slowly lifted his hand to her face and wiped away a few of the tears that were making their way down Grace's face.

"I'm sorry. I just… I thought you weren't going to make it." Grace said in tear-filled voice.

Ty leaned back into his pillow and closed his eyes, already exhausted even though he had only been awake

for a few minutes. Grace noticed this and kissed his forehead to say goodbye and left the room.

Once she was outside the tears were threatening to fall again, but as she saw Jake and Alyssa walking over to her she quickly brushed them away.

Jake wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "You ok?"

Grace stepped away, "I'm fine. There's just a lot to do, I need to get a hold of Tony because he'll have to be the one in charge of the company while Ty isn't there. And let's see, I'll need to figure out when his bills need to be paid, and I need to clean out his fridge. I was looking in there for something to eat and it was disgusting."

Jake pulled Grace off to the side, away from Alyssa, "Grace, you don't have to do all of this. There will be plenty of time to get this all figured out."

"No, it needs to be done now. If it's not done now it'll never get done and everything will fall apart."

Jake sighed, he knew that there would be no reasoning with her, "Well at least let us help you then."

"That's ok, I'm fine. Really. You should go home, you can't miss too much work and we can't expect Luke and Lorelai to watch Elle for too much longer."

"Grace-" Jake started to say.

"No Jake, it's going to be awhile before Ty is back on his feet and you can't miss that much work and we can't leave Elle for that long."

Jake was confused by her insistence that he go, but decided that it wasn't worth fighting about at the time, "Ok I'll go, but I'm not leaving until tomorrow. Luke and Lorelai will be fine with Elle for the rest of the day . I'm only leaving though if you promise to rest sometime this afternoon."

Grace sighed and rolled her eyes, "Fine."

….

Luke and Lorelai's house - Rory's Old Room

"Lorelai!" A very uneasy Luke called, "I think you better get in here!"

Lorelai started to ask him what was wrong, but she stopped when she saw Luke holding Elle away from his body with his arms straight out in front of him.

Luke anxiously glanced at Lorelai, "Um, she is leaking something very gross and smelly."

Lorelai looked and saw that Elle was indeed a mess and had leaked out of her diaper. "Oh wow. That is not a good smell," She said as she plugged her nose, "Go take her in the bathroom and put her in the tub to clean her off."

"Wait. Me? I don't know how to-"

"Luke, you've given Elle a bath before."

"Not when she was like this."

"I'll be right in to help. Besides, you are going to have to get used to this because soon we are going to have a baby of our own and they tend to do this a lot," The phone started ringing and Lorelai started to left to go answer it.

Luke looked at Elle, who was clearly uncomfortable with her current situation and was beginning to whine, and he headed to the bathroom.

Lorelai entered the bathroom a little while later to find that Luke had already gotten Elle cleaned up and was getting her dressed. "Aw, see I knew you could do it."

"What took you so long! That was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen! That so much worse then jam hands! Why did you not warn me about this?" Luke ranted.

"I'm sorry hon, I didn't realize that you needed to be informed that babies poop," Lorelai joked, "And believe me, I would've rather been in here. Michel kept me on the phone forever going on and on about some emergency with one of his dogs or Celine Dion. I'm not really sure because I stopped paying attention after I realized it was him."

"Well since I took care of this diaper, I think it's only fair that you get all the rest for today."

"Um yeah, about that… You see, Michel called because of whatever emergency and I have to go into work today to cover for him. Do you think you could manage watching Elle for the rest of the day?"

Luke just stared at Lorelai for a minute but he managed to stutter out, "But-but I've never watched her alone before, what if she throws up or something?"

Lorelai had to laugh at Luke's nervousness, "Luke you'll be fine. You are great with Elle and if you need me you can just call and I'll come right home."

"You'll come right home?"

"Faster than a flash," Lorelai gave him a quick kiss, "You'll be fine and I'll be home by 6."

She walked out the door leaving Luke and Elle alone. Luke just stared at the baby for a minute and groaned as he heard her make a mess in her diaper again.

….

Lorelai hadn't had a minute to herself since getting to work as she had been hit with one crisis after another, somewhere along the line there had been a clerical error that had everyone's rooms and reservation dates all mixed up. The computer was a mess and the only one who could seem to fix the thing was Elle, which left Lorelai fighting just to keep things running. She had only managed one quick call to Luke to make sure that he and Elle were both still alive. Luke had assured her that they were fine and when she hung up she heard Elle giggling in the background. She managed to get another customer's reservation worked out when she decided to try and sneak away to her office.

As Lorelai entered her office, she looked on her desk to see a plate full of all sorts of various foods. She made a mental note to thank Sookie, who had made it her personal job to make sure that Lorelai ate while she working, not that Lorelai ever had any trouble remembering. She was about to take a bite when her phone rang, sighing she hurried to answer it.

"Hello."

"_Lorelai, hi. Um, it's Jake."_

"Jake, what's wrong? How's Ty doing?"

"_He's doing alright, the doctors say there shouldn't be any permanent brain damage."_

Lorelai sighed in relief, but then stopped as she realized Jake had more to say, "Jake what's wrong?"

"_It's Grace. She won't talk to me or to anyone. She's totally shutting herself off, and I just don't know what to do anymore. I was hoping you could talk to her, she always seems to listen to you."_

Lorelai leaned back heavily into her chair, "I've noticed that. I'll try talking to her, but she hasn't been listening to me either."

"_Thanks Lorelai, I appreciate it. I'd better get going, give Elle a kiss for me."_

Lorelai promised that she would and with that she hung up the phone. She was really dreading this call, but decided that she better go ahead and get it over with. She dialed Grace's number and hoped that she would actually answer.

After a few rings that phone picked up, _"Hi Lorelai, how's Elle?"_

"She's fine, she and Luke are hanging out today. Listen Grace, I need to talk to you for a minute."

"_Okay, but I only have a minute so make it quick."_

"How are you actually doing Grace?"

"_I'm doing fine."_

"Are you sure hon? Because you aren't acting fine."

"_Why does no one believe me? I am doing just fine and everyone can just stop worrying about me."_

"We worry because we care Grace. Jake says that you aren't eating or sleeping, that's not fine. And you are pushing everyone away."

"_Why is Jake talking to you about this? It isn't his, or anybody else's business besides mine. I know how to take care of myself, I did it for years didn't I?"_

"But Grace-"

"_No Lorelai, no buts. I'm fine and if you can't believe it then I'm sorry, but that's not my problem."_

….

Grace hung up the phone and sank down to the floor and began to cry. Why did everyone keep bothering her? She was fine, or at least as fine as she could be. What she needed was for everyone to leave her alone and let her deal with this. She picked herself back up off the floor and wiped away her tears. She couldn't cry, she had to be strong.

A/N: This may be the longest time between chapters. Ever. I'm really truly sorry for the delay, school was a lot busier than a thought it would be. Lots of homework and the times when I wasn't doing homework I wanted to be out with friends. I actually worked on this chapter all throughout the school year when I had a free moment. After going through and re-reading old chapters, I've decided that I do want to keep going and finish this story. So that's my summer goal, because I know in 2 months it will be back to busy. Hopefully people are still interested in this story, and if you are please review and let me know!

Oh and I know Grace is a little intense right now, everything is just piling up and there have been a lot of changes in her life in the past year. She is reaching a breaking point and she just doesn't know how to handle it.


End file.
